World Weather Organization report: Greenhouse gases are higher than ever

Report from the World Weather Organization More and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere As of: October 27, 2026 • 10:00 a.m

More and more greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere. This is shown by a new report from the World Weather Organization. Apparently nature is not recovering from heat and drought as quickly as expected.

It is a development that has been going on for decades: year after year, more and more greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere. The concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide will continue to rise in 2025, shows the new report from the World Weather Organization (WMO). Since 1990, the impact of long-lived greenhouse gases on global warming has increased by 56 percent. This means that more and more heat remains in the air conditioning system.

This is not surprising, says Sönke Zaehle from the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena. However, it is worrying. Because it's not just the concentrations that continue to rise. The rate at which greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere over longer periods of time has also increased. "The fact that the growth rate is increasing rather than falling shows that we are not doing enough," said Zaehle.

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By far the biggest driver: CO2. Since 1990, 80 percent of what has increased the climate drive has been CO2. If this problem is not addressed, climate change will not be stopped, said Zaehle.

The main reason for this is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. Carbon continues to enter the atmosphere everywhere.

Changing that remains a big challenge, says Dagmar Kubistin from the German Weather Service. "CO2 intervenes in our daily lives. Globally, we see that countries are developing further: economic growth, industrialization and energy consumption are also increasing worldwide. Renewable energies are becoming more and more common, but they are not yet at the stage where they can really absorb this as a whole," says Kubistin. That has to change quickly.

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Because while forests and oceans absorb some of the carbon dioxide, some remains in the climate system for centuries or even millennia. And these natural helpers are coming under increasing pressure.

Terrestrial ecosystems - such as forests, soils and plants - typically absorb around a quarter of human CO2 emissions. But as the heat and dryness increase, this works more and more poorly. This was also the case during the strong El Niño of 2023/2024. The regularly recurring climate phenomenon has natural causes and occurs independently of man-made climate change. However, global warming can further exacerbate the associated heat and drought.

Many tropical regions suffered from extreme weather conditions during this time. Plants were able to absorb less CO2, and forest fires released additional carbon. According to the WMO, carbon concentrations rose exceptionally sharply in 2024, more than in any other year since measurements began. And although there was no El Niño active in the following year, 2025, the CO2 concentration continued to rise sharply.

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A clear warning signal, says Oksana Tarasova, atmospheric physicist at the WMO. "The systems don't have time to recover. If they can't recover, more and more carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere - driving further changes," she says.

The WMO expects that extreme weather phenomena will occur more frequently or become more severe in the future. Natural CO2 sinks such as forests and moors would be further weakened and future climate protection efforts would be made even more difficult.

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The WMO report shows that the energy transition also has side effects. The organization reports a record increase in the greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which is used, among other things, in electrical switchgear to prevent sparks. It has around 24,000 times as much impact on the climate as CO2, viewed over 100 years, and remains in the atmosphere for thousands of years. However, it is currently only present in the air as a tiny component.

For atmospheric researcher Zaehle, SF6 is not an argument against the energy transition. The CO2 savings would clearly outweigh the additional climate impacts, even if it is not always easy. “Of course you can also make sure that this gas doesn’t escape,” says Zaehle.

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While CO2 determines the long-term course of global warming, methane is considered a particularly important lever for the next decades. It warms the earth about 80 times more than carbon dioxide over 20 years, but remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter time. Kubistan explains: "When it comes to methane, it is the natural gas and oil industries that make up a large share. But also agriculture, i.e. ruminants or rice cultivation."

Depending on temperature and precipitation, wetlands also release the gas. The WMO estimates that around 35 percent of methane emissions come from natural sources. Around 65 percent, on the other hand, are man-made. For Zaehle, there is short-term savings potential here: "If you want to do something in the short term, then you have to focus on the gas that reacts in the atmosphere in the short term - that is methane."

When it comes to fossil emissions, a lot can be achieved relatively quickly by closing methane leaks and reducing losses. And agriculture also offers starting points - for example when it comes to feeding, animal populations and the question of how much meat consumption is actually necessary.

However, there could be delays at the political level: The EU Commission wants to postpone parts of its methane regulation by a year. The European Parliament has now even voted for three years. This affects requirements for monitoring and reporting methane emissions from imported oil, gas and coal.

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The report from Geneva is intended to serve as a scientific basis for the COP31 world climate conference in Antalya, Turkey. Negotiations will take place there in November about how states want to achieve their climate goals. From the perspective of researchers, the tasks are clear: less CO2 from energy supply, transport and industry. Less methane from leaky gas pipes and agriculture. And less nitrous oxide through more targeted use of fertilizer.

At the same time, reliable measurements are needed to detect changes in the atmosphere and to check whether climate protection measures are actually effective. “We have to sensibly use all the levers we have,” summarizes Zaehle. The European Union is actually on the right track, but it should not leave this path.

The new WMO figures show that the trend is continuing: more greenhouse gases, more heat, more polluted natural sinks. How quickly politicians react and how consistently they implement existing solutions will determine whether nature can still keep up.

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | WMO warns: greenhouse gases are higher than ever | Oct 27, 2026 | 10:00 a.m.NDR Info | News | Oct 27, 2026 | 10:30 a.m